LAUREN DAVIDSON PERSONAL ACCOUNT

When the dust settles on these strange days, we will remember the heroes and villains

The world has turned upside down. The Conservative government is paying the private sector’s wages, luxury car makers are building ventilators and tobacco firms are developing a coronavirus vaccine.

In these worrying, uncertain times we must all do our bit to make the crisis period as easy and short as possible. But not everybody is playing ball.

Airlines that have cancelled flights are making it hard for their passengers to claim the refunds to which they are legally entitled. Insurers are refusing to pay out to customers who should be covered by the terms of their policies. Banks are denying small businesses access to the emergency loans designed to see them through the next year, or are attaching pricey and cumbersome terms.

It may go against the very fibre of banks’ beings to put aside profitability, act as a passive middleman for the Government’s lending plans and give out free money to all who come knocking.

They must take on weak businesses that would not normally qualify for loans and offer the same terms to promising businesses that would usually be drawn on to their own more lucrative deals. But we are all being asked to act differently now.

The Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has urged people not to look for loopholes in what they have been asked to do but to follow “the spirit” of the law. Businesses must do the same.

We are not leaving the house. We are not travelling to work, eating at restaurants, browsing in shops or going to the cinema. We are not visiting our closest friends or family members. We are being asked to put aside our own interests to save others, and the banks must do their bit too.

That said, this works both ways. Yes, if an airline has cancelled your flight you are entitled to your money back. But if you can make do without that cash right now, or intend to fly with the airline at a later date once travel restrictions have been lifted, consider taking a voucher instead.

I have accepted credit in lieu of a refund for cancelled tickets

We are asked to put aside our interests to save others and the banks must too

at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn, north London, because I want the theatre to be there when this is over. My cleaner is not working but I am still paying her, because I want her to come back when this is over.

It’s impossible to say what we will make of this period when the world is righted again. But one thing that will be clear is who were the heroes and who were the villains, who chose reason over rights and who took responsibility for building the society we want to be there when we emerge.

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